Orkney (Südafrika)

Orkney, ,South Africa
Orkney (Südafrika) Orkney (Südafrika) is one of the popular City located in ,Orkney listed under City in Orkney ,

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Orkney is a gold mining town situated in the Klerksdorp district of the North West province, South Africa. It lies on the banks of the Vaal River approximately 180 km from Johannesburg near the N12 (national road from Johannesburg to George).HistoryThe town was named after Orkney Isles off the north coast of Scotland, the birthplace of Simon Fraser, one of the gold mining pioneers of the 1880s. The town was proclaimed in 1940 on the farm Witkoppen, where Fraser had first started gold mining.The town was laid out by another Scot by the name of Maconachie (full name unknown). His naming of the streets was interesting: he used the names of poets and authors from the British Isles. This was unusual for a mining town in the heart of "Afrikanerdom". The rule was broken as Afrikaner nationalism grew dominant in the 1960s, and some of the UK literary names were replaced.The town was near the epicentre of an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale which struck on 5 August 2014, killing one person.Tourist attractionsGround Nut FactoryVaal Reef Gold MineSportsThe Oppenheimer Stadium, a large football (soccer) stadium in Orkney, was increased in size for the 2010 Football World Cup, although it was not used in the World Cup. The Orkney Stadium Disaster, when 42 fans died at the stadium in 1991, was the second worst sporting disaster in South Africa.

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